Gordon Brown has been accused by the head of the independent statistics
watchdog of misusing official figures to justify Labour’s immigration
policies.

Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, is said to have written to the Home Office to complain that the Prime Minister had broken the strict Whitehall code of conduct by making use of figures which had not been yet been released to the public.

Mr Brown used the statistics, which showed a reduction of 20,000 skilled computer workers since the introduction of the Government’s points based immigration system, in a keynote speech at the start of the election.

They had been passed by the statistics authority to the Home Office, but had not been published, and so were not available to the other party leaders.

Following the speech, Sir Michael launched an official inquiry into the use of the figures. He has now written to the senior civil servant at the Home Office to say that ministers should not be allowed to exploit unpublished statistics.

He is said to have warned that figures should be issued: “in as accessible a way as possible, treating them ... as official statistics”.